I heard a saying once that goes, “Once you get to know people, it’s impossible to hate them.” I’m not sure if this is always true on the individual level, but on the collective level it seems to be. Put in other words, there are good people everywhere.

I taught a number of Muslims on my mission. Most were from Morocco or Nigeria. I’ll readily concede that my sample size isn’t very large, and I see that I didn’t exactly become lifelong friends with any of them, but I did get a close enough look to see a variety of approaches to their religion.

One man told us about how Muslims don’t smoke or drink, all the while not even attempting to hide the cigarette package in his shirt’s front pocket. Others seemed very clean cut and pious, and fairly familiar with the Qur’an. I think the obvious message is that much like any religion, there are various degrees of compliance and different ways of approaching the faith.

One thing I did notice among these men (we rarely encountered female migrant workers from Africa) is that they mostly seemed like nice people. Even the more practicing Muslims didn’t strike me as the type that hated Americans or that were waiting for just the right moment to storm an embassy. They weren’t the extremists I often see portrayed in the media.

Were they representative of Muslims in general? I have no idea. I myself am certainly not representative of all Mormons in general. It takes time to get to know an entire people, and it’s pretty much always a bad idea to generalize because there are always exceptions.

However, I’m always going to cringe whenever I hear anyone paint Islam with broad brushstrokes as a violent religion. Yes, there are certainly huge problems with Muslim extremists and their propensity for violence, and we can make arguments about whether extremists comprise an embarrassingly (and dangerously) large portion of Muslims. But it’s simply not fair, not accurate, and not productive to treat them all that way.

I find it eye-rollingly ironic to hear my own fellow Mormons or other Christians attack the Qur’an as a vile book inciting its readers to act violently. While humans are often notoriously ignorant of their own religious texts, I find it ridiculous that avowed followers of the Bible are so capable of being completely oblivious to its own violent contents. (And no, saying that Jesus did away with all that doesn’t grant you a free pass. Anyone being honest and informed simply has to admit that the way Christians interpret the Bible is highly selective.)

Being that humans haven’t quite figured out God completely yet, we’ve got a lot of messy religious history scattered around. In my opinion, any religion that’s been around long enough or has attracted enough followers will have some ugly, loathsome components or people. And it’s important to fight those things. But let’s not fight the people.

Libyans protest the recent attack on the US embassy that resulted in the death of 4 citizens

Encourage moderate Muslims to serve as stronger and brighter examples of the beauty found in their religion. (While we’re at it, the same thing should go for Christians as well.) Stand in solidarity with those Muslims who represent the best of humanity as they stand in solidarity with us. Don’t allow politicians or leaders to prey on fear of Muslims. I am hopeful that we can take steps towards a more peaceful and compassionate relationship.